1772 AD
Somerset case limits slavery in England
British Empire · Slavery & coerced labor
Lord Mansfield held that James Somerset could not be forcibly removed from England for sale in a colony. The judgment neither abolished slavery in the empire nor automatically freed every enslaved person; its scope must remain precise
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
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- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: point event.
Sources
- heritagecollections.parliament.uk (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Pending verification: the source could not be accessed
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
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